Bone Styli, Battle Abbey

A stylus is a writing tool used to inscribe on a surface such as a wax tablet. Two kinds of stylus were found at Battle Abbey, north of reredorter – small bone ones and larger metal pointed ones. The metal pointed styluses were previously identified as parchment prickers, but recent research has demonstrated that prickers were significantly larger.

As well as being the medieval equivalent of pencils, metal pointed styluses similar to the ones we have may have been used to rule the lines on manuscripts before 1300, after which a lead derivative called pummet began to be used instead.